FOLLOWING another great – albeit profligate – performance against the prime relegation candidates of Reading on Saturday, we learned little more about this set of players than what we already knew.
In the next 21 days, however, Liverpool will face 6 fixtures that, while they could ‘make or break’ our season, will tell us a lot about the quality and depth of our current squad.
From Thursday evening, Liverpool will take on Anzhi Makhachkala at Anfield, then Everton in the Merseyside derby on Sunday. Then it’s the home visit of current manager’s former club, Swansea, for a Capital One Cup tie quickly followed by the visit to Anfield of Newcastle; then the away game in the Europa against Anzhi and then off to Stamford Bridge for the much-anticipated continuation of our yearly grudge-match with Chelsea.
In many a year gone by, most of us would be looking forward to those 21 days with a sense of anticipation and excitement but this season, given our situation with a new manager, new players and current injury-crisis up-front (not to mention the prolonged absence of Lucas), Liverpool are looking like they’re not exactly in the most ideal position to deal with such a tough series of fixtures.
But, while it’s easy to be negative, there’s reason for optimism. We’ve seen some serious progression since the new season began, both in terms of style of play and also the youth we’ve seen brought through. The signs are good for us at the moment; we play great football, we’re dominating even the best teams in the land, we just lack the killer touch to finish them off when we have them on the ropes.
The indication from the kids is good too, with the likes of Suso, Sterling, Shelvey, Wisdom, amongst others coming in and showing that they have what it takes to step in and seem like seasoned-pros, and we are going to need them to step it up a notch more in the next month. But they will be ably assisted by the spine of quality that runs through the team, from Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, to Allen, Sahin, Gerrard and Suarez.
Not only that, but players like Henderson, Enrique, Downing (maybe even a certain Mr. Joe Cole) are going to have to make themselves take things up several gears, as Rodgers is going to need every inch of the depth of the squad he has at his disposal to make a success of the coming run of fixtures.
I have faith in these players though. Maybe not all of them, but with the quality we have in the first team and the youngsters who have made themselves regulars so far, I believe that we can come out of the other side with great, big smiles on our face. Provided we find a gem in one of the young strikers in the coming weeks that will help to temper our goal-scoring problems – to a degree – and hopefully a return to world class form from Pepe Reina we can enter into the meat of the season with realistic hopes of challenging on all fronts.
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wow , you certainly are positive , and gain optimism in even the most depressing areas .
i dont know how you have optimism when for me , the season is already a train wreck . pretty football and possession count for nothing , scoring goals is all that matters . its been nearly a season and a half now , us saying we need to be more prolific – nothing changes . only personel changes can solve that problem , and with liverpool likely to be avoiding top class signings again in jan , its unlikely it will be solved any time soon .
champions league was the target – thats out of reach . at least the youth give some cause for hope , if not for this season – but for the forthcoming ones .
You really haven’t a clue if you think any manager is going to work magic in three months. You’re immature impatient attitude is nothing short of of everthing that is wrong!!
plenty of managers have done wonders in 3 months . even AVB is doing ok . he hasnt helped himself by buying average players .
If AVB is doing ok and is only five points ahead of Liverpool. How does that make Rodgers’ position in the league table a ‘train wreck’….how is 5 points in a league table insurmountable!!?? Oh yes, and we have without question had the harder run of games.
to be fair – there has been a lot of managers who have had an immediate impact . and a lot have been sacked for having a start like we have had . if city , spurs or chels had this start , their manager would probably be gone . are we so far behind them that we accept mid table ? rodgers was tasked with getting champions league football . because of a lack of quality signings in the summer , CL is out of reach .
rodgers might or might not be to blame for the striker shortage , but he is to blame for allen ,borini and assaidi .
im not saying he should be sacked – he deserves more time . i am saying is his performance so far is nowhere near good enough for LFC
I didn’t say a thing about performances, it’s clear it needs to improve but there is just 8 games gone!!.
‘but he is to blame for allen ,borini and assaidi’ What did Allen do wrong!?
we are in the bottom half of league and cant score things are not good
‘Provided we find a gem in one of the young strikers in the coming weeks’
Can’t see that happening. There is nobody, Morgan, I doubt very much. Yesil, maybe in 2 years time.
you havnt seen much reserve or youth games ? even know any of the kids ? morgan will be a star , given a chance
I’ve seen a lot of reserve and youth games , it’s just that I can tell the difference in quality/potential between that and CL.